Trolley Troubles is the second Oswald cartoon and the first to be released in theaters after Universal executives grew dissatisfied over Poor Papa.
Plot[]
The film opens with Oswald preparing his trolley for departure at the station, cleaning it while other characters clamber around the outside of the cart. After oiling the cart’s wheels and turning a hand-crank to power the trolley, Oswald shoos the other characters and drives away, though not without a few uninvited passengers. Oswald arrives to a station and empties it into his trolley, packing it entirely full, and drives off again. The track he passes over is bumpy and of an inconsistent width, causing the cart to tilt, widen, and squish in response.
The trolley comes upon a cow who is standing on the tracks. It does not respond to the trolley’s bells, forcing Oswald to brake. Oswald rings the bells a few more times and then yells at the cow to move, but is promptly ignored. He steps off the trolley to speak to the cow face-to-face, becoming more bashful and polite while off the trolley. The cow refuses, causing him to become angry again, and is unable to be budged by him, smacking him with its tail for pulling it. Oswald attempts to ram the cow with his trolley, but bounces against it harmlessly. The cow dusts itself off and turns to stand across the tracks, leaving a small space underneath its stomach for the rails. This gives Oswald an idea, and he sneaks the trolley underneath the cow, laughing at it as the trolley drives away. The cow turns and walks away spitefully.
The trolley comes to a hill which grows steeper the further it climbs. Oswald tries desperately to keep the cart running up the hill, but ends up pushing against it fruitlessly. As he stands behind the trolley, exhausted and trying to figure out how to make it climb the hill, a goat rams into him, pushing Oswald and the trolley, which knocks Oswald over as it returns. Oswald yells at the goat, then spies a pole and gets an idea. Sneaking offscreen holding the pole, he places it between the goat’s horns and returns to the trolley, taunting it by hanging his bottom over the edge of the trolley. The goat’s repeated attempts to ram Oswald as he taunts pushes the trolley up and over the hill.
Oswald fights to the front of the trolley as it careens down the hill. He tries to turn a lever but the lever falls off, and he tosses it aside. The turns of the trolley path launch passengers out of the trolley, as do the smaller hills that the trolley goes over. Oswald is left alone in the trolley with it out of control. He passes through a series of tunnels, praying and rubbing his lucky rabbit’s foot on himself for luck. The final tunnel he passes through leads to nothing, the track broken off. The trolley crashes into a river, resurfacing, and Oswald stands atop it, using a stick to row away down the river.
Sound Version[]
In 1931, Universal re-released this cartoon with music and sound effects.
Notes[]
- The short was later remade as the Flip the Frog short The New Car (1931), as well as the Looney Tunes shorts Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! (1931) and Buddy's Trolley Troubles (1934).
